A MAN who swore at police while urinating off a Bridgend footbridge has avoided jail.

Police were called to the bridge between Quarella Road and the Tesco store on Brewery Lane after Stephen Gronow, 57, of Coity Road, Bridgend, was seen banging his head into his hands and shadow-boxing shortly after 8am on Friday, January 27.

Gronow, who was described by police as “smelling strongly of alcohol, slurring his speech and being unsteady on his feet”, then started urinating into the river, Bridgend Magistrates’ Court heard.

Richard Paul, prosecuting, said that when police asked him what he was doing, he swore at them and said: “I needed a pee.”

Nick Lewis, defending, said Gronow, a “severe” alcoholic, was struggling to come to terms with the death of his mother a week before the incident.

“He was alone in his flat and he started to drink. He went out early and, because of a medical condition acted in the way he did.”